Weeks Fifty-one and Fifty-two: Home.

Fifty two weeks. Crazy. This time last year I was going out of my mind, preparing for my year abroad. I would stress out and panic whenever anyone mentioned the Southern Hemisphere. The word 'Kangaroo' would bring me out in paroxysms of terror. The sight of my barely-packed suitcase could induce tears.  I was gearing up to move 10,000 miles away from home, from everyone I know, for a whole year. I was terrified. At my leaving party, I cried.

Fast forward a year.

I am in Elvington, sat on my bedroom floor. I can do this because this floor is not the undulating mass of cockroaches upon ancient ground-in sand, which made up my bedroom floor in Newcastle. For breakfast, I made a smoothie in the blender that works properly, unlike any of the appliances which inhabited the Church Street kitchen. I have spent the past fortnight catching up with so many of the people whom I was so terrified to leave. But despite all this... it feels different.

I'm not the same person who left this house a year ago.

The changes are subtle. My pyjamas consist of the same scruffy t-shirt and shorts, but this t-shirt is green and gold, emblazoned with a fabulously tacky southern cross and 'AUSTRALIA'. My fringe has a faint ginger streak in it, from a year basking in the hot, southern sun. A pair of ridiculous harem pants have taken up residence in my wardrobe, alongside floaty Aussie dresses and Big-W bargains. I gained a ferocious appetite for avocado, that long-despised green slime-fruit, to the extent that, slathered upon thick-cut spelt toast, it becomes my new favourite breakfast. My ipod, whilst hardly a stranger to dulcet croonings and whiney ballads, now harbours vast collections of Angus and Julia Stone, Ballpark Music and Kimbra.

Coming home, I can see the changes that have occurred in my absence, like the newly festive-wallpapered hallway, in the aftermath of the Great Christmas Day Inferno of 2011 (Mum left the candles burning and they set fire to the entire dresser, LOLZ). But far more than that, I have started seeing unchanged things, those areas of static similarity, in a different light. The English summer, long a bastion of the cold and the wet, feels like a muggy prison. How did I deal with this much rain, every year, for two decades?! The pollen, Oh the pollen! A year away has left me spluttering and wheezing; a short run through the village leaves me gasping for breath. The hayfever gods have seen fit to smite me down once more. This small island nation suddenly feels forlornly landlocked, adrift upon an ocean of green fields and rolling hills. I have not gone any longer that 5 days without seeing the ocean, in a year. Now, two weeks in, I feel starved of that brisk, salty breeze and glittering blue surface. I'm longing for road trips to Whitby. Not that the North Sea ever glitters, but it would at least be something.

This is turning into a long moan about England - and it's not! There are so many wonderful things about being home. My gorgeous family, friends and boyfriend. My beautiful University campus, home to gambolling bunnies and grassy-breathed shetland ponies. My lovely home, with its plentiful supplies of Yorkshire tea and crunch creams. The English countryside (disregarding that bloody pollen!). Iced glasses of pimms with strawberries, cucumber and mint. My 21st birthday! My lovely new car. Being reunited with old, different clothes, alternatives to the same wardrobe with which I have grown so tired. Decent internet connection, because seriously, Australia? Sort it out.

My year abroad changed me, in small but meaningful ways. Ever the couch potato, the warm sunshine and endless beaches enticed me to take up running. My faint Yorkshire accent, absent to Northerners, yet derided by Southerners, has apparently all but disappeared. A year of minimal footwear has exchanged the soles of my feet for the human equivalent of hooves. My itunes library contains Carly Rae Jepson....

For all the distance though, I'm surprisingly similar to the girl who left a year ago.  My freckles, once overtaken by my tan in the blazing Christmastime sun, have returned to prominence. I have retained, even strengthened, my aversion to wearing shoes. I am still a hoarder, to the point that reducing my suitcase weight to 30kg was a mammoth struggle. My itunes library still contains Westlife...

My first two weeks back in the Northern Hemisphere have been lovely. I knew the time would come when I would start yearrning for Australia again; for distant beaches, endless cobalt skies and squawking mohican-ed birds. I just never realised it would happen so soon.

This will be my last post on this blog. Thanks to everyone who has put up with my ridiculous rants and lengthy, over-emotional odes to Down Under. Hope you've enjoyed reading it :)

This beautiful country and these beautiful people have given me the greatest year of my life. Australia, I'll never forget you.

Weeks Forty-nine and Fifty: The end is nigh.

I'm writing this entry sat on my bare mattress, surrounded  by bags and the worlds largest suitcase, with the detritus of my year abroad littering the room around me. I am frantically packing up my room on my last day here on Church Street. It has been a hectic, emotional and busy week, as I've rushed around to tick off final bucket list items, say my goodbyes and organise my life.

Last week, we travelled to Katoomba in the Blue Mountains. It was a place we've all been meaning to visit for the whole year, but it was always eclipsed by more exotic, far-flung destinations. The Blue Mountains are so close, they were always shelved and postponed. They weren't going anywhere! In the last few weeks though, we've realised we really need to get a shimmy on and go there if we're going to, so we booked a hostel and endured WAY too many hours of CityRail's abysmal service.

We stopped off in Sydney the night before, to watch the VIVID light festival at Circular Quay. I'd heard a lot about it and I was pretty excited. The projection on the Customs House was incredible - a shifting, interactive video game-scenario, projected onto the front. The Opera House had an equally impressive but somewhat bizarre projection of a dancer writhing on the roof. Whilst it looked beautiful, it was a little.. odd.

Customs House. (Cafe Sydney!)

The Opera House.

The next day, we spent a few hours end-of-year souvenir shopping at Paddy's markets, and sunbaking at Darling Harbour. Then we hopped on a train to Katoomba. At first glance the town was adorable, with lots of cute little shops and cafes. We found our hostel, which was perfect! It was just a little bungalow, with a snuggly living room, and only three dorms. We had booked out one of them, and the other two were unoccupied. Essentially, we had our own little holiday cottage in the mountains! It was very, very cold (and we were still suffering a little from the previous night in Sydney), so we spent the evening snuggled up on the sofa, watching atrocious chick flicks and eating copious amounts of junk food.

The next morning we set out to see the sights. We took the glass-bottom cable car across the canyon, where the views were amazing. The clouds were miles below us, down in the valley, and the sky was bright blue. At the end of the cable car, we walked down to Katoomba cascades and along to Katoomba falls, which - at 221 feet - were spectacular. We also found an adorable little chocolate shop, where we helped ourselves to ridiculous amounts of free samples. We bought beautiful D-I-Y hot chocolates, where you add chocolate buttons to hot milk over a candle flame :)

Mount Solitary

Katoomba Cascades

Yummy hot chocolate!

Frieeeends.

In the afternoon, we took the world's steepest railway (52 degrees!) to the valley floor, and walked through the rainforest. We also followed the clues left in the hostel by Marty (who had visited earlier in the week), and walked down exactly 72 of the iron steps which make up the Giants Stairway at the Three Sisters, to find where 'X' marked the spot. There, buried in the ground beneath the step, was a little bag containing a woven bracelet for each of us. It was amazing! We watched the sun set over Echo Point and the Three Sisters. In the evening, we headed out for a meal in town.

Scary!

Beautiful view from Echo Point, over the Three Sisters.

They call them Blue for a reason!

The next day, we awoke at 6am in an attempt to watch the sunrise from Echo Point. The pre-dawn mist swirling over the mountains was beautiful, but the sunrise was nowhere to be seen. After a while, cold and tired, we headed back to the hostel to pack our stuff before commencing the 5-hour journey back to Newy. The journey was long, but the trip was so worth it. The Blue Mountains were so beautiful!

Pre-dawn at the Three Sisters.

Eerie!

Since then, I have had my last exam (statistics), which was surprisingly painless. We've had cyclonic storms hitting the whole of the east coast, with 23ft swells and 70mph winds battering Newy. The entire length of Newcastle beach has been obliterated, with the waves carrying huge sandbanks onto the pavements, and tonnes of oceanic litter coating the beach. Roseanna and I ventured out at night, in the midst of the storm, and battled the winds all the way to the ocean baths. The waves were breaking way over the walls, which were a good 15ft above the sea level. Crazy.

Newy beach DESTROYED by the storm!

Bye bye volleyball nets :(

Yesterday was our unofficial Autonomy Day II. Last Auto day was SO much fun, but the next one falls in August, after we have left! Therefore, we decided to throw our own! We held a sleepover in Kirst's room, and set alarms for 3am. We got up and the drinking began... At 6.30am we walked up to Fort Shepherd in King Edward's Park, to watch the most incredible sunrise I have ever seen. The sky was stained bright red, pink and gold. Unbelievable.

Incredible.

We ventured back to the house for pancakes topped with EVERYTHING. The theme of our food that day was, apparently, 'carbs topped with stuff': porridge with nutella, pancakes with everything, wedges with dip, waffles with ice cream... Healthy as.

Over breakfast, I was presented with an early birthday present of a bottle of Hendricks Gin from my housemates! I was completely surprised, and it was so sweet of them! It's my favourite gin and it's so, so expensive here! I had to have a breakfast G&T, just to celebrate!

!!

Around lunchtime - and completely out of the blue - Josh got a call from the landlord announcing that we're all being evicted! The landlord is going to Europe for a month today, and has been very stressy about the details of our moving out. We made one wrong move - forgetting to empty the bins in the kitchen on Autoday - and he flipped his lid. Legally, he had no right, as he should have given us 14 days written notice, but we figured we're better off cutting our losses, grabbing our bonds back, and running for the hills! Therefore, we're moving in with Perry, Liz's boyfriend, until we leave. He has been super generous and offered us all a place to stay :)

The rest of the day was a little less stressful, with an afternoon of drinking in Josh's room and a party at Erin's house in the evening. It was a ridiculous day, with way more drama than expected, but it was so much fun! By the time I got to bed, I had been up and drinking for 21 hours! Ouch.

It's so strange to think that this is my 341st night in Australia, out of 343. In two days, I will get the train to Sydney, complete with my unbelievably heavy suitcase, rucksack, laptop and handbag. I will check in, deposit my luggage, and start the first leg of my marathon 24-hr journey encompassing two hemispheres and three continents.

This year has been the most incredible, exhilarating year of my life. I have laughed more, taken more risks, met more people and seen more sunrises than I could ever have imagined. I have jumped out of airplanes, stroked the shells of seaturtles browsing the reef, jumped from waterfalls in underground caves. I have made  incredible new friends, from all over the world. I have come to realise that a year abroad has absolutely nothing to do with studying. In 10 years, I will have no recollection of my module choices. I will, however, remember forcing myself out of bed to watch the sun stain the sky gold and pink. I'll remember watching the stars swirling in the sky on new years eve, from a desert island. I will remember the metallic tang of goon, the  sunsets from the Obelisk and the feeling of running barefoot alongside the wave-skipping dolphins at Nobby's beach.

Before I left, I had no idea what to expect. I contemplated dropping out of the year abroad scheme, scared of missing people, running out of money or missing out on graduating with my friends. Looking back, those excuses seem so ridiculous. Moving to the other side of the world for a year has been the most terrifying, challenging and amazing experience of my life. I will miss this year, this place and these people more than I can even comprehend.

We will never again be together so young.

Weeks Forty-six to Forty-eight: The Bucket List

Ahhh, the bucket list. The quick scribble of last-minute Australian experiences, noted down in a post-feasting haze, has taken on a life of its own. At the time of writing, it consists of upwards of 25 items, ranging from brunches to skinny dips.

In the past week alone, we have ticked off several. We have visited Newy Museum and Art Gallery (#1 and #2, respectively). We've popped to Jordans Bakery Cafe for beautiful bluebird hot chocolates, which come in the form of a huge honeycomb-chocolate chunk, stirred into hot milk (#10). We've (sorry, Dad) gone skinny dipping in the ocean baths (#6)  - it had to be done! We've spent an incredible day sampling the Hunter Valley's most famous produce on a wine tour (#4). We've finally, FINALLY made it to Paymasters Cafe for the most incredible breakfast (#5) - we actually managed five breakfasts between the four of us, much to the astonishment of the waiters! We also spent a very soggy day down on the Central Coast, visiting Terrigal (#18). It's been an adventure!

#10: Bluebird hot chocolate, yum!

#4: Hunter Valley wine tour!

#4 continued...

#4 continued - a vineyard in winter.

Two weeks ago, the surf was HUGE, and the waves at Newcastle beach were topping 10ft. The entire ocean baths was under water - it was a pretty amazing sight. The waves on Wednesday are supposedly going to dwarf those though - with swells of 15ft expected. I'm pretty excited to get down there and see it!

The kids baths, overflowing.

The entire ocean baths complex was underwater!

My second semester of Aussie uni has come to a close, and I've been very busy finishing off assignments and tying up loose ends. Now all that remains is two exams, before I bid adieu to the University of Newcastle, Australia FOREVER. What a strange thought.

I've also finished my job at the Merewether Surfhouse (thankfully)! I am not going to miss being a dishy - or walking the 5km back home in the dead of night! I will miss the wages though - it will be a shock to the system going home and getting a job paying only £6 or £7 an hour. Here, the minimum wage is $15, and most jobs pay upwards of $20 - which is about £12!

The past three weeks have flown by! Each weekend I mean to sit down and write a new blog, but each time I've been distracted by this or that. It's completely mental how fast time is going now. In exactly 16 days - just 16! - I will have transformed into the Crazy Crying Plane Girl, cruising over Northern Australia at 33,00ft. Waaaah :(

:)

Newcastle, we love you!

This week, I have an exam on Wednesday afternoon, before we all up sticks and head to Sydney for the Vivid lights festival, then onto the Blue Mountains for the weekend (Bucket list #3). I'm so excited!

With all the comings and goings of my last few weeks here, it's likely that my next blog entry will be my last from Australia. That feels so wrong! I am definitely excited to escape the cockroaches and be reunited with Aussie hair products (which, funnily enough, they don't sell here), crunch creams and my nearest and dearest. I still can't quite get my head around it, though. It is going to feel WEIRD.

For now though, I am way too busy to spend too long thinking about it! I have countless coffees to drink, sights to see, goonbags to regret, cupcakes to nibble and experiences to have! The bucket list continues...

Weeks Forty-three to Forty-five: Festival time!

Time is going so quickly now. As I write this, I have less than six weeks remaining in Australia. Five weeks and two days, to be precise. 36 days and 18 hours. 52,981 minutes. 3,178,876 seconds.

Don't get me wrong, I am excited about going home. I'm excited to wake up in my bed again; to have decent tea and crunch creams on demand; to hear Yorkshire accents! I am, however, scared. I'm scared that I'll go home before I've crossed everything off my bucket list. I'm scared of missing out. I'm scared of leaving Australia.

The past three weeks have been, for the most part, fairly routine. I have had a lot of work to do, with at least three assignments per week to complete. Therefore, far too much time has been spent in the library or the city hub for my liking!

On Friday, we took a break from working. We went out for breakfast at Three Monkeys on Darby Street, where I had an amazing corn cake stack with avocado salsa and garlic mushrooms (yum!). The weather had taken a turn for the better, so we spent the afternoon on the beach. After a long summer, the sea is still lovely and warm, and the waves were enormous!

Oooof!

Yesterday was a day I have been waiting for a long time: Groovin' The Moo Festival in Maitland. I got up early, to squeeze in a run before pancakes and (unfortunately) goon for breakfast!

Half- banana and chocolate, half- peanut butter and jam pancake! Breakfast of champions!

 It was a beautiful sunny day, as we crammed like sardines into the train, extraordinarily lucky to find seats. We arrived in time to see Matt Corby, who was pretty amazing. In the afternoon, there weren't many acts we were bothered about, so we settled down in the field, occasionally collecting cans to get money off cider from the bar tent. Classy. It was such a summery afternoon.

The crowds for Matt Corby

:)

As the sun set, we headed back to the stage to see Ball Park Music, who were really good, and then await City and Colour. I have been a jibbering wreck about seeing Dallas Green for some time now. Watching him come onto stage, as the sun set and turned the sky gold and pink, was beyond incredible. His set was amazing, although I would have loved to have heard more of his earlier songs from the 'Sometimes' and 'Bring me your love' albums, as well as those from 'Little Hell'.

The skies as we waited for City and Colour to start.

<3

Dallas!

Once the sun had set, it was bitingly cold, so we set off in search of hot food. The evening's acts included Kimbra and Kaiser Chiefs, who were both really good. We left just before the hypothermia set in, and managed to get the bus home without paying, somehow! It was such an amazing day, and I'm so glad we went.

We also went to a Burlesque night in Hamilton, of which I was a little dubious... We found it on Groupon, and, in the spirit oh 'Hey, we're in Australia!', we went along! It was so weird, and there was way too much back-cleavage... but it was so much fun!

Free 'goon-pagne' at the Burlesque night!

As winter has encroached upon us, the wind is getting chillier. I never expected Australia to be cold when I got here - in terms of warm clothes, I brought a hoodie and a denim jacket and that's it! I went to the beach today, and took a hoodie as a pillow. After half a chapter of being stripped down to my bikini, the hoodie was on. There's not much between us and Antarctica, and when the wind gets up it is COLD. As I write this, I am in bed; wearing leggings, a hoodie, slipper socks and a skiing headband. This is ridiculous!

The group of us have spent the last few weeks compiling a sort of mental bucket list of all the things we want to do before we leave. Some of them are, sadly, unachievable. Watching the sunset over the Bogey Hole is one of my favourite memories of last semester and I'd love to do it again, but the Bogey Hole has now been closed to renovate the steps, and it doesn't look like it will be opening any time soon. Otherwise, it is full steam ahead to fit everything in. I want to go to One Penny Black again, for the best coffee in Newy. I want to go to the Blue Mountains. I want to watch another sunset at the Obelisk; another sunrise at Newcastle Beach.

My time is rapidly running out. Just writing this has taken 2165 seconds off my remaining time here. I still have several assignments - and exams - to complete. But I am determined to squeeze every last drop out of my time here.

My favourite morning.

Weeks Thirty-seven to Forty-two: a whistle-stop tour Down Under

Hello!

Firstly, I apologise for the ridiculously belated nature of this post! I meant to update my blog before my family arrived, but alas! I forgot, and as such am about a month behind!

From where I left off last time, I had a fairly uneventful few weeks of uni, interspersed with evenings at work and the odd beach day. Borrrrring. But..!

On the 31st of March, I headed down to Sydney to meet my parents and little sister, fresh off their planes from Perth and the UK, respectively. We did the typical tourist thing in Sydney - seeing the Harbour Bridge and Opera House, breakfast by Circular Quay and dinner by Darling Harbour.

<3

We headed to Bondi to bake on the beach, walk to Clovelly, watch the surfers at Tamarama and the swimmers at the Icebergs club on Bondi.

The family at Bondi 

The iconic Bondi Icebergs pool

On the third day, we headed to Manly aboard the famous ferry. The views along the way were gorgeous, as was Manly itself. It's a much nicer, more chilled out town than Bondi. The beach is still beautiful - and rather exciting, as it played host to my first ever shark experience! A large shark was spotted 600m up the beach and the water was evacuated - but sure enough, the surfers were back amongst the waves within the hour! We also spotted a small juvenile shark in a bay further along the coast! In the evening, we had dinner on a balcony overlooking the beach, followed by free Ben and Jerry's courtesy of the scoopshop next door!

Views from the ferry

YESSSS

Manly Beach

From Sydney, we headed up to Newcastle for a couple of days. I showed my family around my adopted hometown, took them to my favourite eateries and, of course, the beach! We also drove up to Shoal Bay and Zenith Beach for the day.

Our next stop was Brisbane. We spent a lovely few days with family up in Queensland, before briefly nipping back to New South Wales for a few nights in Byron Bay. I absolutely love Byron - it's so chilled out, and the people are so friendly. Everywhere you look, there are surfers, hippies, musicians, poets, travellers... It's such a melting-pot of people and cultures. We walked up to Cape Byron, explored the shops, ate lots of gelato, went surfing, and had a night out with some of the Novocastrians, who had road tripped there for the week.

Beautiful Byron

:)

Little sister the surfer girl!

Watching a pod of dolphins from the beach

We ventured back to Brisbane for a few days, in which we explored the city and went to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary - my third visit in 7 months! It's always fun though, and was lovely cuddling the koalas and roos again.

Evie's new friend

Our next stop on the family tour took us over 'the Ditch' to New Zealand. We flew into Auckland, and spent a day exploring the city, the art gallery and the shops. I even bought jeans!!! (For those of you who know me, you'll know how big a deal this is. I cannot find jeans long enough for me, ever ever ever. This is only my second pair of jeans, the other pair I have owned for six years...)

Auckland Art Gallery

From Auckland, we drove down to Waitomo, to go Black Water Rafting in the Waitomo Caves. We were kitted out in thick wetsuits and helmets, then launched through the caves on tyre inner tubes, jumping off waterfalls, gazing at glow worms, and freezing our arses off in the process! It was so fun though, and the sight of hundreds of thousands of glow worms above me as I floated along the underground river in pitch darkness was incredible.

Our next stop was Lake Taupo. I didn't make it to Taupo when I visited NZ with the girls, so I was really happy to get there with my family It was absolutely beautiful! We visited Huka Falls and went on a cruise up the river. We also walked around the lake and explored the town. The weather was perfect: chilly, but so, so clear and sunny, and the lake was like glass. Watching the sun set over the lake was beautiful.

LOOK! JEANS!

Huka Falls

Lake Taupo at dusk

Next up on the journey was Rotorua, but on the way we visited the Orakei Korako geothermal park. It was a beautiful setting - accessed via a short boat ride over the lake - and made for a lovely walk. The geology of the area was amazing. We stopped for lunch by the lake, which was beautiful.

Orakei Korako -  the Hidden Valley

In Rotorua, we familiarised ourselves with the ever-present and lingering odour of sulphur, and set out exploring the town. There was more to it than I realised whilst exploring it back in January with the girls. We wandered along the lake shore, explored a Maori settlement, and - yes - went to Pak'n'save. It had to be done. The IKEA warehouse of kiwi supermarkets is a bizarre experience.

Beautiful Lake Rotorua

We also drove to the Skyline Gondola, for a trip up the mountain. At the top, Evie and I dragged our parents down the Luge, with Dad speeding along at approximately 1.1mph. Once Mum and Captain Slow headed off for a walk, Eves and I took on the advanced track, causing Evie to make an accidental off-road detour!

Helmet losers

Back at lake-level, we visited the Polynesian Spa, which was beautiful. Soaking in the 40-degree waters at the lake edge - complete with panoramic views - was amazing.

Perfect.

All too soon, it was time to head back to Auckland, and begin the journey home. We had a birthday dinner for Evie, who had the misfortune of spending her 17th birthday flying back home. On the upside, the time difference extended her birthday to an impressive 36 hours!

At Sydney airport, I bid farewell to my family for my last 8 weeks in Australia. It's so strange to think that I'll be back home so soon! Eight weeks is nothing! I am excited to go home and see everyone, but I am so dreading leaving my life here! I have had the most amazing year, and it has gone by far, far too fast. All good things must come to an end, but I know for sure that I will be back. After a year like this, nothing could keep me away.

A beautiful Taupo sunset.